These notes are posted at http://globaltable.org.uk/wp/, to contribute background information for associates of the Global Table and its offspring. The Open Research Group hosts Global Table meetings on Wednesdays from 12noon to 2 pm at the School of Economic Science, 11-13 Mandeville Place, W1U 3AJ, open to all on a drop-in basis. This weekly forum is a persistent focal point for many who cannot often get to London but are encouraged in bold initiatives by association and collaboration. We all continue to foster the public sense of the search for inclusive justice. We are trying to sense the richness of our networking without overburdening with detail. We collaborate in order that action may flow BOTH in specified targeted initiatives AND in acknowledgement of our shared commitment to ending exploitation – usury – now exponentially rampant!  Contact the Open Research Group – info@globaltable.org.uk 

Notes of Open Research Group meeting on 4th July 2018: OpenResearchGroup-180704
Report from UK Commons Gathering on 20th July 2018: LETSlink-Commons-180720
Forthcoming Events:  http://www.globaltable.org.uk/wp/forthcoming-events

FROM ASSOCIATES AT THEIR POINTS OF WITNESS:  

• Richard Murphy (Tax Justice UK) 10-8-18: If interest rates are going to be low for twenty years monetary policy is irrelevant for at least that long

• United for Change | A New Politics is Possible | www.unitedforchange.uk/‎   – Peter Henley, BBC Political editor, South of England writes: Who is united for change?

• PAUL NICOLSON: The United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights will visit the UK from 6 to 16 November 2018. The submission to him  from the Rev Paul Nicolson of Taxpayers Against Poverty is on their website.   “Taxpayers Against Poverty tells United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty & human rights that UK unemployed adults are extremely poor – especially mothers and the disabled.” Taxpayers Against Poverty, Progressive Policy Unit & Land Research Trust have come together to promote the seminar on  “The moral case for adequate incomes and truly affordable housing” at 6-9pm on the 1st November 2018, Portcullis House, Chaired by Debbie Abrahams MP. REGISTER 

• Basic Income trials: Wayne Lewchulk: “We could use [basic income] as an opportunity to discover the potential of humans” Read more here » India: Muhammad Yunus says it’s time to introduce basic income Read more here » SCOTLAND: An update on UBI experiments Read more here »

COMMONS and CO-OPERATIVE SOCIALISM – this non-hierarchical alternative to capitalism and totalitarianism, continues to campaign for a non-usurious, fair-world approach to the economy, taking forward ideas promoted by CCMJ and The Spirit Level – for background see the papers section of www.interestfreemoney.org.  The campaign website – in development – includes videos by John Courtneidge explaining the proposal:  http://www.co-operativesocialism.org • See latest update on the Co-operative Sector: http://www.letslink.org/forum/commons-and-co-operatives-update/

FREE CRITICAL THINKING: meets most Tuesdays 7-9pm (last meeting of term 2nd December) – see Events Listing at The London School of Mosaic in the Basement Studio (down ramp), 73-96 Ludham, Southampton Road, Lismore Circus, London, NW5 4SF (Gospel Oak overground /Belsize Park tube): http://www.freecriticalthinking.org • Critical Thinking’s scope: http://freecriticalthinking.org/9-general/1518-hierarchy-and-the-political-economy – in pithy summary: “Hierarchy, theft of the Commons and Usury are the fundamental drivers of poverty, wars, environmental destruction and the enslavement of humanity. Once we understand that, we’re on the road to recovering humanity.”  See Clive Menzies’ paper in the Islamic Economics Journal of King Abdulaziz University: Reform Proposals in the Monetary System for Attaining Global Economic Stability: http://iei.kau.edu.sa/Files/121/Files/153872_30-02-09-Clive-3.pdf.
Daily Pickings: August 2018: • Mon 6th: Who owns our future? • Tue 7th: Thin end of the wedge • Wed 8th: Navigating reality • Thu 9th: Israel and Christian Zionism • Fri 10th: Talpiot Talk does co-creative learning • Sat 11th: Hysterical lies • Sun 12th Aug: Frequency of life • Link to Co-Creative Learning: https://cocreativelearning.org

INDEPENDENT CONSTITUTIONALISTS UK (ICUK): recognises the necessity of dealing with BOTH the need for many urgent palliatives within a dying system, AND a systemic curative re-design by participative democratic application of an integrated political-economy of trusteeship in the co-evolution of planet earth. It concentrates on the Meta-Narrative within which the UK could shape all its independent but mutually accountable communities. Curative change to the political-economy like “poetry happens in two stages, like sculpting; first the imagination, then the chisel.” The specific pursuit of an integral model for public policy originated at the London Global Table and is now pursued as the emergence of ‘A PEOPLE’S INTEGRATED SOCIAL-POLITICAL-ECONOMY OF TRUSTEESHIP IN THE CO-EVOLUTION OF PLANET EARTH.’ The CURATIVE structural change advocated in the ICUK’s Declaration of Purpose is set within PRINCIPLED-PRAGMATISM. It provides an integrated, and therefore interdisciplinary, context for human response-ability. All specialist Disciplines must be seen to make their contribution to this dramatic description of cognitive behavioural therapy applied to public policy and purpose.” MP [For those using philosophical and theological studies as an aid, the curative represents a modern perception of bringing the Kin[g]dom into all aspects and language of public policy. ⁴].  An update of its website is now evolving: http://www.icuk.life.  An informal Strategy Forum meets in central London every Wednesday between 12 and 2pm – you are invited to contact Peter Challen – peterchallen@gmail.com – for latest developments and meeting venue.

THERE IS NEVER A TYPICAL ICUK FORUM. Last week the provisional agenda was not tackled. Four of us wove together a collaboratively improved understanding of a] the intricacies of consciousness, b] through the responsibilities of a local councillor, c] in their pertinence to  one enabling “Living Your Values”; thus contributing to an exchange based on Principled–Pragmatism and Both/And with the help of the new Atlas of Planet and Management for today’s caretakers of tomorrow’s world. We felt the rich harmony in the collaborative “WE”. Let’s call the our emergent discernment  “Interiority with a sense of cosmic context.”

LETSlink is working on much-needed national and regional hubs to enable dedicated training for individual LETS groups. Newly online groups are being encouraged to work on a county-wide basis.  The main website sets out theory and enables enquirers to connect with local groups:  http://www.letslinkuk.net/uk-map.htm. See PP presentation – Local Exchange Trading Schemes: Integrated Community Currency Model – ICCmodelSee record of origin of LETS in the UK via a paper by David Weston, “Green Economics: The Community Use of Currency,” paper presented at The Other Economic Summit at the 1984 TOES Conference as recorded by Paul Ekins in “The Living Economy: A New Economics in the Making”, 1986.  See LETSlink Forum.  

LONDON COMMUNALISTS, coordinated by John McCone, are engaged in discovering a politics of citizenship based on shared public concern. See notes on Communalism based on Murray Bookchin’s: “The Next Revolution” – CommunalismProject00-A4 – They meet 6pm-8pm on the third Monday of each month in the reading room of 88 Fleet Street, London EC4Y 1DH – dates on the Events page. See John McCone’s written evidence on Land Value Capture submitted to the Housing and Communities and Local Government Committee. Feedback welcomed to John McCone.

POSITIVE MONEY has branches all over the UK to campaign for debt-free issuance of currency, which are often listed on our Events page.  They campaign for a fairer, more democratic and more sustainable economy.They held a seminar in association with RSA on Monday 18th Sept 2017 – see report: PositiveMoney-RSA-170918 – see also Positive Money’s latest video about the: Bank of England and a new paper, published in January 2018: Escaping-Growth-Dependency-final_print • Recently screened by Greenwich & Lewisham branch is Michael Oswald’s film The Spider’s Web : Britain’s Second Empire, portraying Britain’s role in creating a global network of tax havens. • See Latest Message from Positive Money, which we have been asked to forward to our contacts:  Dear friend, I’m a supporter of Positive Money. We’re a people-powered movement to reform the money and banking system so that we can have a fairer, more democratic and more sustainable economy. There are lots of important campaigns we can choose to support. But this one is all about changing the root causes of many of the things that are important to me and to our society: our housing crisis, soaring inequality, protecting our environment, an unstable economy. I support Positive Money’s work because I believe reform of the money and banking system will mean a better world for all of us, and I think you should too! Please click here if you’re interested in signing up to Positive Money’s fortnightly newsletter too: You’ll hear about campaign and research updates, events, and what activities you can get involved in to help. The more of us who join this movement – simply by signing up to their campaign online as a starting point – the closer we’ll get to changing things for good. So please will you consider joining me and signing up to Positive Money’s fortnightly newsletter now? Just click this link and it will take you less than 30 seconds: Thanks,

Further Reports are invited from our associates in the quest for inclusive justice to stir our awareness and effect change through both palliative and curative means.

—————————————————————————————————————-PUBLICATIONS & BLOGS – reviews always welcomed:-]
—————————————————————————————————————-

ECONOMICS 101: BBC Radio 4 broadcast on 12th August 2018: Martin Wolf argues that, to be a truly democratic and prosperous society, we need a new and comprehensive movement devoted to public engagement with economics. In 2008, following the deepest financial crisis Britain has ever faced, the Queen asked how it was possible that nobody in the government or the City had been able to see the crash coming. A group of eminent economists responded to her question in a letter, arguing, “Everyone seemed to be doing their own job properly on its own merit. And according to standard measures of success, they were often doing it well. The failure was to see how collectively this added up to a series of interconnected imbalances over which no single authority had jurisdiction.” The economists’ letter does little to reassure the reader about avoiding another crash in the future. Moreover, it implicitly endorses the dominant view that our economy should be managed and maintained by a small group of technocrats, serving the public interest. The Financial Times chief economics commentator Martin Wolf mounts a challenge to this belief and explores why economics education and engagement falls so far behind other disciplines. He speaks to figures such as former US treasury secretary Larry Summers, Nobel prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, chief economist at the Bank of England Andy Haldane, economist Wendy Carlin, journalist Robert Peston, and politicians John McDonnell and Liz Truss. Programme producers: Sean Glynn and Tom Peters: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0bbtbcs

MONEY BOX: Economics with Subtitles – Series 1 (2): 11th August: Bracelets for Bullets – Why an Essex mum wanted her jewellery melted down and what it says about government debt….. In this show, Ayeisha Thomas-Smith & Steve Bugeja explore government debt. Why did an anonymous mother send her bracelet to the government to be turned into a bullet? How are you lending the government money without even realising? And when should you be worried about how much debt the government is in? Producers: Simon Maybin & Phoebe Keane: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06gcl1x

RENEGADE INC: Monday 13th August 2018: Should we fret about our sea of debt?
What if we have all been living under false pretenses? It’s not capitalism that rules supreme… it’s creditism, which is like capitalism but different, as wealth is ‘loaned out’ rather than wealth being ‘invested’. But what if through this system we could change the course of history by making investment decisions that champion value creating industries and sectors instead of those that extract value? Host Ross Ashcroft is joined by author, economist, and equities analyst Richard Duncan to discuss how governments and policy makers can start deploying capital in smarter more socially useful ways: https://www.rt.com/shows/renegade-inc/435811-credit-loan-debt-invest/